Friday, July 15, 2016, Whycocomagh, NS
Day 48

A 30 minute car ride along a fairly deserted road to the Highland Village to learn about the Scottish immigration to Nova Scotia and the Gaelic Folk life. A good many of the Scots’ descendant’s still speak Gaelic. The Scots began arriving in the 1700's when the Brits took control of Scotland. I did learn one Gaelic phrase which is impossible to spell but sounds like  “ishka bana”, “the water of life”, which means Scotch. Speaking of which after lunch in the coach we head to the Glenora Distillery, about a 30 minute drive.  This is Canada’s only single malt distillery.  They can’t call it Scotch since it is not made in Scotland but that’s what it is. They make only 1500 barrels a year. It’s a 6 week process and then it goes into once used Kentucky Bourbon barrels for aging from 10 to 25 years.  The tour included a sample of the 10 year old which of course, I get two samples.  Thank you Rosemary the teetotaler.  At $1,500 a bottle for the 25 year old, they weren’t sampling that - too bad. The distillery began in 1990 so this was the first year of bottling the 25 year old. After dinner in the coach, we headed to Baddeck and saw the musical (operetta really) “The Bells of Baddeck”.  A fantastic show about the lives of Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel. Well written by Lorna MacDonald, a professor of Music in Toronto and a native of Cape Breton.

Thursday, July 14, 2016, Whycocomagh, NS
Day 47

After a short drive we spend the morning at the Shubencadie Provincial Wildlife Park. A very nice zoo located is a forest so the paths are mostly tree lined and shaded.  A bonus in that one of the nearby trees at the park has an eagle’s nest with momma and papa and two eaglets, not part of the zoo residents. Look closely and you can see the eaglets in the photo. We then continue heading east about 3 hours to Cape Breton Island and check into the Glen View Campground. First day since the drive into Halifax that we drove the coach more than an hour and a half. As Doug Hennigar pointed out to us, Nova Scotia is an hour wide and day long.